Coalition says loopholes would close with campaign reform

A left-leaning coalition pushing for partial public financing of state election campaigns argues that political contributions from corporations is preventing legislative action on collecting more corporate taxes.

The coalition, called Fair Elections, says state tax law should be changed to capture profits of New York companies that are deposited in off-shore accounts. The companies in question — including Pepsi, Pfizer and several major financial firms — have major New York operations.

State officials are mulling changes to the campaign finance laws. Gov. Andrew Cuomo as well as many of his fellow Democrats favor a system where individual donations are matched by taxpayer funds; Republicans argue that tax dollars shouldn’t be used for political campaigns, and say such a system will inevitably raise taxes.

Fair Elections’ tallied $670,377.30 in campaign contributions to state legislators over the last two years.

“There’s no question that CEO campaign contributors are looking for something in return for their big donations,” said Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York. “This new analysis shows that if New York had tax policies that make good economic sense, instead of giving away tax payer cash to multinational corporations, we’d save billions. Publicly financed Fair Elections is how we can make our state’s policies reflect the best interests of New Yorkers instead of the interests of corporate donors.”

Scharff and others in the coalition say public financing will reduce the influence of corporate money. Business groups reject this argument. They say they employ thousands of New Yorkers, and should have a legitimate voice in the political process.